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Welcome to Michael's blog. Michael Andrew, (aka Michael The Maven) is a freelance producer, photography instructor, tech innovator, and when needed, disaster aid specialist. Disclaimer: Michael is a participant in Bhphoto & Amazon affiliate programs that provides an advertising commission if you purchase through links on this website.

How to Get This Shot #1

I get a lot of requests for information on certain shots. I hesitate to do this for a few reasons:

1. It is extremely time consuming to track information for each shot.
2. I would much rather teach by principles than by recipe. You have more options when you are flexible with your creations vs. just doing something you know.

With time, most students will be able to look at a photograph and tell everything about it, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, even what the histogram would look like.

The situation on this shot dictated what I my decisions were. I had two cameras with me, one with a 28-70 + 580 Speedlite, the other with a 50mm 1.4. I had gotten a few "safe" shots with the 28-70 and wanted to mix it up. There was very little light in the room, so I decided to try the 50mm at 1.4, however because they were dancing I needed to shoot at a fairly high shutter speed, so I bumped my ISO up to 1600. I think it looks fine in certain situations.

I wanted to go for a silhouette shot, using the videographers light but I didnt want Mary and Chris to be too dark, so I shifted my exposure compensation to +1.33 to brighten them up and over expose the light behind them. (these are all things I talk about on my DVDs if this is too confusing).

The last part was the composition. I decided to use a Rule of Thirds Shot for the couple with a Dutch Tilt. This was the result.